Ogier builds a Friday lead as rain brings chaos to WRC Rally Finland

Sebastien Ogier delivered a near-faultless performance through wildly changeable conditions to end Friday at Rally Finland with a 16.3s advantage over Toyota teammate and FIA World Rally Championship points leader Elfyn Evans.

Ogier (above) won three of the morning’s four forest stages, then negotiated torrential rain, standing water and rapidly-deteriorating visibility during an extraordinary afternoon loop of those same four fast-gravel tests east of host city Jyvaskyla.

Evans rose from fifth to second as the weather shuffled the order, while home favorite Sami Pajari, who took a debut WRC win in Estonia earlier this month, completed the overnight podium positions. The 24-year-old Finn is 26.7s behind his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate.

Reigning WRC champ Ogier began Friday 1.2s behind overnight leader Adrien Fourmaux’s Hyundai, but immediately took control with a commanding run through the 11.28-mile Laukaa 1 test in his GR Yaris Rally1.

Ogier’s co-driver in Finland, Julien Ingrassia, called pacenotes for eight of the record-breaking Frenchman’s nine WRC titles, then retired at the end of 2021. But with Ogier’s regular co-driver, Vincent Landais, missing the event due to a family emergency, Ingrassia answered the call and is back for a one-off run that shows the chemistry’s still there between the ultra-successful duo, even on the fastest rally of the season. Further proof came later in the morning loop, when Ogier grabbed fastest times on 11.83-mile Sydanmaa 1 and the 5.93 miles of Hoho 1 to reach the midday service 5.3s clear of Fourmaux’s i20 N Rally1, with Pajari only 2.7s further back.

The afternoon looked set to produce a close three-way fight. And sure enough, Pajari won the second pass of Laukaa to cut Ogier’s lead to 5.4s, but the complexion of the rally changed dramatically when heavy rain arrived on Saarikas 2.

Evans, running first on the road, escaped the worst of the downpour and set the fastest time. Conditions deteriorated sharply for those behind, with Fourmaux losing almost 90 seconds and Solberg surrendering 55.6s as water poured into his factory GR Yaris.

Ogier limited his loss to just 6.5s and, crucially, dropped only 2.1s to nearest rival Pajari.

“Bad luck, but that is the way it is with the weather,” said Ogier. “Compared to Sami, we did a good job.”

The following Sydanmaa 2 test brought further drama. Ogier survived a wild slide into a ditch, but was still 30.2s quicker than Pajari, whose windshield had misted after the car’s blower stopped working.

Ogier carried a comfortable advantage through the final forest stage and the leg-ending run through the short, mixed-surface Harju super special in downtown Jyvaskyla, completing a day in which he’d combined outright pace with measured risk.

“It’s been a very good day,” he reflected. “It was very tricky this afternoon and probably not so enjoyable for anybody, but it’s good that we managed to come out of it.”

Evans’ overnight second place represented a strong return from a difficult road position. The Welshman had opened the stages throughout the day, meaning he was sweeping away loose gravel for the cars behind, and briefly visited the bushes on the first pass of Hoho, but capitalized on the conditions to move ahead of Pajari.

“The morning wasn’t bad from our side, but the afternoon was a bit of a lottery,” said Evans. “We had it better on the second stage of the [afternoon] loop, but then probably had the worst of it on the next. I’m happy to get through it.”

WRC points leader Elfyn Evans ran first on the road in his Toyota GR Yaris, but had a better day of it than expected in the changing conditions. He’s second overnight.

Pajari remained firmly in podium contention, but admitted his hopes of taking back-to-back WRC wins had taken a significant blow.

“We lost the game for the win on that one stage,” he explained. “The blower wasn’t working and we didn’t realize it, so we had full mist on the windshield. It’s a big shame, but we are still fighting for the podium.”

Oliver Solberg ended the day fourth in a Toyota 1-2-3-4, 41.3s from the lead, after recovering his confidence during the afternoon. He’s 14.6s behind Pajari and 23.6s ahead of Martins Sesks, who emerged from the chaos as the highest-placed M-Sport Ford driver in fifth.

Best of the non-Toyotas in fifth overall, Martins Sesks put in an impressive drive in a tricky day in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1.

Fourmaux fell from second to sixth after being caught in the worst of the rain, while Josh McErlean in the second of the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1’s reached the overnight halt seventh, despite also battling a heavily misted windshield.

Takamoto Katsuta endured what he described as a “disaster day” and sits eighth overall and last of the five-car Toyota factory fleet, narrowly ahead of Thierry Neuville. The Belgian lost almost three minutes after striking a hidden rock and damaging his Hyundai’s front-left suspension on the morning pass of Hoho.

Esapekka Lappi and Jon Armstrong were Friday’s major retirements. Hyundai part-timer Lappi will not restart his home event after his i20 N Rally1 sustained roll-cage damage in a crash on Sydanmaa 1, while Armstrong’s Puma Rally1 became stranded in a ditch on Saarikas 1.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Robert Virves has made a very positive start to his quest to win three successive rallies in his Toksport Skoda Fabia RS. After class victories in Greece and on his home roads last time out, the Estonian has built a 13.5s lead over Roope Korhonen’s GR Yaris Rally2.

Estonian Robert Virves started strongly in his bid for a third consecutive WRC2 class win, the Skoda driver even building a useful gap between himself and a horde of chasing Finns. Red Bull Content Pool

Korhonen heads a stacked entry of up-and-coming Finnish talents in WRC2, but it’s a slightly more mature local ace, 18-time WRC event winner Jari-Matti Latvala, who’s pushing him hardest in third.

Latvala isn’t chasing class points in his GR Yaris Rally2, but with only 6.5s separating him from Korhonen, expect to see the now-Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal to keep pushing hard on Saturday on roads he knows well.

Saturday’s second leg features more high-speed gravel and more gravity-defying jumps – a given on Rally Finland – with two passes each of the Parkola, Paijala, Vastila and Leustu tests that add up to 78.1 competitive miles. And with only a slight chance of rain, drier stages should ratchet up the intensity levels even more on the “Gravel Grand Prix.”

WRC Rally Finland, positions after Friday/Leg One, SS10
1 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 1h03m47.4s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +16.3s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +26.7s
4 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +41.3s
5 Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m04.9s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m24.0s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m29.0s
8 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m30.7s
9 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m56.2s
10 Robert Virves/Jakko Viilo (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +3m08.7s 

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